RotG: Growing Up
by InMyDreams2
Summary: Jamie doesn't know what's real anymore. Ever since the accident, he's had a hard time remembering, a harder time making sense of it all. To him, it's all a past that rationally, he should be able to live without...Terrible then, that the cold seems to follow him. (One-Shot/Possible Story)


**I needed to get my creative juices flowing again, so I decided I'd finally bring this idea of mine to life. If people end up liking it, I might turn this into a full fledged story instead of a one-shot. Either way, I hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer! I don't own Rise of the Guardians. If I did, there would be a sequel.**

Jamie doesn't know what exactly is really and what isn't any more. His sister's input doesn't help either.

He remembers most of his younger years spent playing with the neighborhood kids, whether it be rain or shine. Plenty of the days he remembers with clarity are of them playing in the snow. Hills of white fluffy ice stretching in every direction. Snowballs racing past his face during one of their all out battles, another where he spends down a mountain on his firetruck-red sled, laughter bubbling from his throat.

Those days would end with he and his sister tucked their beds, waiting for fresh frost patterns to swirl onto their windows, the golden tinted dreams to embrace them and warm them for the day to come.

All of these winter memories seem to hint at and tie to the first of these events, one Easter Sunday so many years ago. It's a day he can't remember, and no one can recall what happened to him in a single sitting. The more he asks, the more it hurts his friends to talk about. Jamie pushes the memory far from his head. He finds the absence pulls like a ghost at his heartstrings.

Other memories he has from _before_ the accident aren't as clear. These are ones that take place during the warmer months or summer, or midday; during school hours. A haze over them makes trying to recall them difficult, near impossible to see. It's the majority of his memories; his past self. He wants to know, but some ethereal force is keeping them from him. (The doctor and his parents argued simple head trauma and the fact that he was legally dead for a half an hour. Science versus fictional belief.)

A month after the accident he was determined to remember everything. Two years later, he's relented, given into who he's grown to become. (A broken boy who wants so much more.)

He's Jamie Bennett. A sixteen year old kid who's a sophomore in high school that wants to be an archeologist after graduating. He has two beautiful women in his life; his younger sister Sophia and mother Allison. No father, not since he was twelve, apparently. (One of the things he can't actually recall, but knows because he's been told as such). A girl at school that lives down the street, Pipa, is his girlfriend of four months, five months in a week. He does well in all his subjects except history(which he finds ironic) and is first chair clarinet in his high school's symphonic/concert band.

All of what he's done to grow and improve has turned him into a teen that his mother looks at with pride. A boy his sister trusts enough to go to as a confident. A student others admire and strive to be.

The problem is that it almost feels fake.

Jamie's dreams, like his _before_ memories are riddled with holes. Holes that make every morning he wakes feel uneasy; make him hate the sight of his own reflection. He jumps at shadows and flinches at the cold. Little quirks his body has adapted too, but his mind still hasn't. They tie Jamie to his before personality and prevent him from completely becoming his own person. A hindrance, a reminder.

With a deep breath, Jamie clears his mind and focuses on the music in front of him. His conductor straightens his tie and taps his baton on the podium. His fellow musicians ready themselves to perform their best. They've been practicing for too long for their music to be anything other than fantastic. After the count of three, the baton starts to move and Jamie breaths in. He plays his first note and the world around him changes.

_Thick snow flurries fall from the sky in heaps. White nothingness stretches for miles and miles, no clear break or sign the snowfall would be stopping. Jamie doesn't mind. His coat, heavy duty boots and leather gloves will keep him from freezing and he trusted Soph dressed similarly._

_He can see the outline of what he assumes to be her, sitting by what they officially named Jack's lake. With each step closer, the pink if her jacket gets brighter. Jamie smiles at the sight if her fiddling with string of one of their sleds, the other is currently being dragged behind him. "Yo Soph!"_

_Sophie turns and smiles back at him. She fumbles to stand and tackles him in a hug once he gets close enough. "You're late James!"_

_Jamie peaks at his invisible watch. "Na. You said 4:30. It's 4:40. Ten minutes is not a big deal." She rolls over so he isn't being crushed and compacted into the snow. A lone flake lands and meets on the tip if his nose._

_Jamie can hear her huff. "Ten minutes is a long time. It was starting to get cold while I was waiting."_

"_Well now I'm here." He pulls himself out of the partial snow angel he just created. "We can head up the hill and go down a few times before it gets dark….unless you just wanna chicken out and go home."_

_A hard whack to the shoulder send Jamie flying back into the snow with an 'ooph'. "No way slowpoke! I didn't walk all the way out here just to go home. I'm going to the top of the hill whether you like it or not."_

_Jamie hesitates, looking straight up at the nothingness. The serenity of the cold biting at his cheeks, the snow muffling all other life. He wanted to close his eyes and enjoy the moment, the beauty of it all. Instead, he hoisted himself up again and runs after Sophie. "Don't wait up for me Soph!"_

_It took more effort than he let on to reach the top of the hill not far away from the lake. Fifteen minutes of hiking through the ever layering snow made the simple trek difficult. More so because once Jamie caught up with his sister, he had to hike behind her. Her own foot holds slippery and compressed into the snow like pot holes. Their stumbles were all in good fun in the end, but it's hard to smile when your face keeps planting into the cold ground._

_Reaching the top was a short victory. As soon as they both caught their breath enough to speak in more than heavy pants, Sophie waved him forward.__"You go on ahead. I want to take some pictures before I sled down." She cracked a smile. There's no way I climbing back up again and still getting home before dark."_

_Jamie smirked playfully and stuck his hands on either if his hips. "I don't think so sister. As your brother, it's my job to make sure you get down safely."_

"_Exactly." Sophie remarked. "If there's a rock or something I can't see, you'll be protecting me by finding it first. Then I'll have a better chance if avoiding it."_

_Jamie stuck his almost too small sled, flat in the snow. He laid on his stomach, legs hanging completely off the back. "Fine. But I swear to you and your metaphorical rocks…"_

_Sophie pushed him forward with her boot and he took off at a speed he hadn't gone since they'd first met Jack. The wind whipped and tore at his hair, sending it yanking in every which direction. His legs were bent in the air, hoping to avoid touching the ground. A few bumps made him swerve, but overall a pleasant ride._

_Right towards the end, just before reaching the lake, he hits something and flies high into the air with his sled. Both landed harshly on the frozen lake. A crack from when they landed made Jamie think he broke a bone. When the sound persisted, his eyes grow wide._

_He jumped up from where he lay and desperately tried to reach the end of the lake. Two steps forward and the cold seeped into every fiber of his body. The air in his lungs was forced out, leaving him to grasp and breath in ice water._ _No matter what Jamie did, he continued to sink further and further into the water. The light of the surface grew dull. His vision was getting blurrier._

_Soon it all faded to black._

Jamie breaths in, effectively cutting off his last note on time with his conductor. He nods to the band and raises his arm, telling them to all stand with him. So they stand, clutching their instruments with various expressions of contentment on their faces and bow for their audience. Clapping and cheers and whistling brings back the numbness Jamie felt before the concert. Nerves telling him to be worried or nervous, fighting them because he isn't.

He spots a head of bright blond hair in the center of the theater, besides it a brunette one. His sister and mother. Both wearing crazed and over the top smiles while cheering. His heart clenches in his chest. Their support and appreciation of his family meaning more to him than it would coming from anyone else.

The high of the performance and the audience slowly wears off as he walks off stage with the rest of his bandmates. It sinks in. That was that. Months of preparation and all there is to do is wait for a score. Waiting, for some reason, makes Jamie anxious. Like any other teen, he supposed, he wasn't invincible to anticipation-

All thought and trains in his mind halted as he passed a display case in the hallway. The performance all but gone in his mind, the gold trophies but a simple pleasure behind the demonous object that was a glass. He flinched at seeing his own reflection in the case window.

"You alright James? Everything okay?"

He turned to one of his new friends, the girl in question being a petite trumpet player who had dyed her normally wild green hair black for their performance. A shakey smile on his lips. "I'm fine Mina. Just wondering how good the judges think we were."

Mina nodded, accepting his answer. She continued walking until Jamie was left almost completey alone, just a few percussionists trailling behind.

Jamie ran a hand though his naturally snow white hair and sighed in relief when he could no longer see stray strands peeking over his brow. A draft sends a ghostly shiver up his spine.

**_"Such a shame, the Man and the Moon bringing you back. Even I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on dear old Frost..."_**


End file.
